Sure, you will have a lot in your arsenal for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, but none come as crushing as the Void Sword. In their recent downpour of promotion, Konami have release a trailer showing the blood that can be spilled with the weapon, and I am digging what is on display.
Thus far, we have gotten piece by piece of Mercury Steam’s follow-up delivered to us in trailer form, and with the game less than three weeks away, it is time to prepare to jump into 2014’s first true blockbuster. Check out the clip of the sword action below, and stay tuned for even more clips in the near future.
Every four years, despite being watered-down versions of what the main series entries have to offer, EA releases their FIFA World Cup officially licensed video game (obviously, being officially licensed means a bigger money deal than simply releasing a more practical FIFA World Cup DLC update). And so, like clockwork, the publisher has just announced EA Sports‘ 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil.
Coming to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazilboasts improvements to gameplay, such as Response Dribbling and Pinpoint Passing, also featuring 100 fresh animations from passes to saves and penalty kicks. The included 203 national teams, 7,469 players, 19 officially licensed managers, and 21 new stadiums (12 of which comprise the authentic stadiums from Brazil) brings the experience to life. Furthermore, Live City events from all corners of the globe have been implemented, so basically if you choose Australia and score a goal, you’ll see a fan reaction clip from Sydney… which will most likely be one of shock and amazement. The crowds will also utilise brand-new banners, flags and seat cards for the festivities’ celebrations.
In terms of game modes, we are promised the deepest yet. In Road to the FIFA World Cup players can choose between any of the 203 nations and take them all the way through the tournament with up to 32 players locally engaging in the tourney (assuming that’s system-linked). As you progress, you will receive tournament updates from EA Sports Talk Radio, featuring Ian Darke and Andy Goldstein, or Roger Bennett and Michael Davies (Men in Blazers), with over 50 hours of recorded content that’s guaranteed to keep you up-to-date on proceedings. And then there’s the online component, Road to Rio De Janeiro, which allows players the opportunity to win their way across Brazil’s 12 host cities.
For those who wish to pre-order the title, you can do so here to net (subtle, but genius) exclusive game content including new celebrations, historic adidas game balls, and more. Check out the reveal trailer and screenshot gallery below.
There hasn’t been too much information yet on Ubisoft‘s upcoming Child of Light, but they have at least put out the gameplay video to give a general idea of what players can expect from the platforming RPG. A brand new trailer has just been released today for Child of Light showing off some of the features of the game.
More than just the features though, the new trailer also gives a bit more information about when players can expect to play the game for themselves. Child of Light will be available for players interested in exploring the world of Lemuria at the end of April and now players will know just how much the game will cost as well.
Those wanting to check out the features trailer for themselves can find it embedded just below to get a good idea of what Child of Light will offer before it releases April 30th, 2014 for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, Xbox One, PS4, and PC for £11.99.
In what has to be a first for the publisher, Madman is bringing over a limited number of the Collector’s Edition Blu-Ray release of Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion, straight from Japan on April 8.
The Japanese import will be region free and will include English subtitles. Being a collector’s edition, the movie comes with some impressive extras:
Theatrical Trailer
Commercials
Textless Opening
Audio Commentary
Hard Box featuring new artwork
Digipak featuring new artwork
Blu-Ray exclusive feature: Rebellion Theatrical Release Audio Commentary – “Understand the hit anime Series ‘Madoka Magica’ in 2 Hours!”*
Exclusive Original Soundtrack CD… and more!
While these extras are untranslated, the release includes a deluxe booklet with an English translation guide. Pre-orders are now open until March 8 on Madman’s website for $109.95, which is actually cheaper than ordering it direct from Japan due to no shipping fees. Additionally, Madman expects a dubbed and localised release at a later date.
Encore screenings of Rebellion are being held this weekend following the success of last week. Check out our review of the film in case you missed it.
Resident Evil 4 Ultimate HD Edition is packing an HD face lift for one of the most well-received games in the Resident Evil series that’s coming to PC. Those wondering just what to expect from the new edition that didn’t see enough from the trailer that came out last month can get see a little more content today.
Capcom has just put out a brand new video focused on the gameplay of the Ultimate HD Edition, which means that players can see a little more of the upgraded textures. Leon himself is still looking as great as ever, so those wanting to see just what the new version is bringing to the table can check out the new gameplay video embedded below.
The Raid 2 has been enjoying a great, early critical reception during its festival circuit run (holds a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 8/10). It was an Official Selection at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, and now Madman Films has shared highlights from its Sundance Premiere.
The video – which you will find embedded at the bottom of this article – includes snippets on interviews with the director Gareth Evans, as well as some humorous moments from the on-stage Q&A, which saw the actors downplay their injuries on set. At one point, Iko Uwais had a concussion scare, but thankfully was cleared and able to continue shooting. I absolutely loved the first’s brutal, yet skillful action, choreography and directing. The Raid truly, single-handedly restored interest in the martial arts action genre. And apparently, with a 7-minute knife fight finale to look forward to, that means I can hardly wait until The Raid 2‘s Australian release on March 28.
Overview
With a heavy influence from 16-bit shooters like Cybernator and Metal Warriors, the three-man team at ASTRO PORT set out to capture their nostalgia and share it with the world. With other 16-bit mech shooter ARMED SEVEN under their belt, the team seems to be picking up steam. How does the game hold up though? Should it be huge or a scrap iron?
Story
It’s the 21st century. Earth is at war with a race of hostile aliens known as Ramulons. The forces of earth have finally pushed the front lines back to the planet of Ramulon itself, and now its time for you and your mechanized robot, the ‘GMR-34 SALADIN’, to deliver the final blow and end the war. Across ravaged cities, through underground caverns, and beyond, you’ll have to take the fight to the Ramulons or die trying.
Gameplay
Fans of old-school mech shooters like Metal Warriors will get a great sense of nostalgia from GIGANTIC ARMY. The look and feel will cater to the small kid that sat in front of your TV with the SNES on every Saturday morning, watching pixelated explosion with sheer joy.
The controls feel a little off-putting when you first get to try them out. Players used to WASD controls are going to feel backward by default. The arrow keys control your movement and gun angle, and you fire, jump, shield yourself, and use your special weapons with Z, X, C, and V, accordingly. It’s a bit jarring at first, but once you get the feel of it you’ll be fine. If it’s too much to overcome, though, you can customize your controls however you want.
Apart from the controls, the game feels great. When you first fire up the game, you select from one of three primary weapons and one of three special weapons. Each behaves substantially different, giving you a handful of loadouts to replay the game with.
Maneuvering around the environment feels a little slow and plodding, just like a mech game should. It’s never so slow you become bored, but with a time limit that imposes a serious threat to your livelihood, you’ll want to get a move on between battles. To that effect, you’re given a dash to move on quickly or evade enemy attacks, and you can hover for a short time after jumping. It all comes together to present a game that genuinely feels like you’re piloting a large, powerful beast of a machine, and it feels satisfying.
The game isn’t terribly long. There are only six stages, each taking a few minutes to work through. To its credit, though, each stage is well designed and visually distinct, bringing their own feel and enemies for a properly varied game. There are four different difficulties, guaranteed to let you pick the challenge that’s right for you. The game also has around a dozen fun, unique bosses that give the game a great sense of variety and flavor.
Visuals & Audio GIGANTIC ARMY looks as good as any 16-bit game could have. The sprites are bright and well animated, levels and enemies present great variety in design and color palette, and the animation is fluid and well paced. Tearing through a war-torn city, fighting against a giant, crab-like machination on one stage, taking to enemies in a series of caverns, and fighting against Gundam-like enemies on a moving airplane are just a few of the exciting stages and bosses. The game has a simple look by today’s standards, but GIGANTICARMY is fun and satisfying to see in action.
In my mind, the sound design is easily GIGANTIC ARMY‘s biggest weakness. The sounds of gunfire and explosions are solid enough, but there’s no noticeable soundtrack you’ll want to come back to. I never caught myself tapping my foot to anything in the game. On top of that, the options to turn the volume down work for some of the sounds, but the others are almost unbearably loud despite that.
Overall
Overall, GIGANTIC ARMY is a satisfying retro mech shooter. The level design is well thought out and looks different from one to another, staying interesting throughout the game. Boss encounters also present wide variety and fun challenge. The look and feel are right at home with some of the best 16-bit shooters around. The sound design feels a bit lacking, which is a shame since so many old school games are known for their classic tracks. I would also have loved for there to be more here. Six levels just feels like it’s over too quickly. Though the romp is fairly short, it’s a fun and explosive ride that retro fans will surely enjoy.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Hozuki No Reitetsu Episode 5 – The Instrumental Duo Of The Mighty Rivals/Mental Sports Day
Another week, another episode and I’m so glad because I cannot get enough of Hozuki No Reitetsu. Welcome back to another installment of Hozuki No Reitetsu Anime Impressions, I hope you’ve all been as excited about this new episode as I have! This week marks the release of Hozuki No Reitetsu episode five; an episode that once again reunites Hozuki and his long-standing rival Hakutaku, introduces two “larger-than-life” women and has the entire inhabitants of Hell participate in one…HECK of a sporting event. Hozuki No Reitetsu has now, after five episodes, figured out what it does well and it seems to be sticking to it. Pop culture references, well-executed comedy and a cast of characters each more memorable than the last. This is what Hozuki No Reitetsu has become and I’m so into it!
The Instrumental Duo Of The Mighty Rivals:
I’ll come straight out and say it; this would have to be one of my favourite Hozuki No Reitetsu stories so far and it wasn’t because of its comedic value, in fact, it wasn’t that at all. The first half of episode five was entirely made up of parallels between Hozuki and his eternal rival Hakutaku. The episode starts off by showing both the men in their respective other-worldly planes making some sort of stew, one of them to torture the spirit of a sinner and the other to both heal and nourish, I probably don’t need to tell you which one is which. As I mentioned above, the episode introduces two new characters which I can assume will be reoccurring characters since they’re both in the opening sequence and no character up until this point has faded away after their introduction.
Cow-head and Horse-head are the two characters introduced and they both work as the gatekeepers between heaven, hell and our world. Despite how weird the two are I believe they were based off of an actual belief and/or myth, however it is you want to look at it. Look I really just enjoyed the literal parallels between the two characters, both of them got equal amounts of screen time and everything each of them did worked off of the other to show a dark and light side of the afterlife. It was just well done and very well-written, the jokes were still around and that’s what gave it that real Hozuki No Reitetsu feel but it also showed the audience that it can be a little bit…artsy, so to speak.
Mental Sports Day:
This half of the episode was definitely the more “fun-loving” of the two, though that’s not to say the first half was serious in any matter I just found this half to be a little more goofy. “Mental Sports Day” revolves around a literal sports day that is, for all intents and purposes…damn mental. Aparantly, according to the in-Anime history, there has been heaps of these sports days…but none as terrifying as this and it’s all thanks to one man…Momotaro. No, I’m kidding, it’s Hozuki. The man is always thinking about business and it’s his job to keep these demons in line and in shape so he bumps up the dangerous level of the sports festival to hopefully scare these lazy demons into good workers. For the most part the episode revolves around the two young demons; Nasubi and Karauri. These two characters have a dynamite relationship and a great connection that makes for ever greater scenes, they have some really good dialogue and they work dynamically together.
They’re good enough characters that I don’t cringe when an episode or story focuses around them. The two participate in the sporting events and they soon realise that being a demon working in hell doesn’t necessarily mean life is going to be easy. This half-episode actually had some really high calibre animation, it was actually kind of shocking to see such high quality scenes in a mostly comedic Anime, it fit well though especially the way that Hozuki No Reitetsu lays down jokes. It goes from intense to hilarious in a matter of a second and that boost and then drop in animation quality really works to the shows advantage. I say without a doubt in my mind that these guys really know what they’re doing when ti comes to this show and I hope they continue with it.
Check out more Hozuki No Reitetsu impressions HERE.
Get your iPhones, iPads and Android devices out, it is time for some EA Mobile Weekly News! This week’s news is delicious, not unlike a platter of tasty brains. EA have announced that the latest content update for their hugely popular Plants vs Zombies 2is available now!
The update brings back an old adversary – Dr. Zomboss. Zomboss is the ruler of all zombies and was by far one of the hardest challenges that players of the original PvZ had to face. Now he is back with a vengeance. Starting from today, players can build up their botanic arsenal and try to mow down Zomboss. Over the next few weeks, Zomboss encounters will be rolled out for the three starting worlds – Egypt, Pirate and Wild West.
That’s not all however, as the update also brings a new power-up to use; the mighty snowball, which freezes everything on the screen for a short period. You can download the Zomboss update now, or if you haven’t done so already; grab the game on the App Store and Google Play. As always, for all the Plants vs Zombies news, be sure to stay tuned to Capsule Computers.
Since its launch last year, Disney Infinity has seen the release of 26 different characters, encapsulating the past and present of some of Disney’s biggest franchises. However, there was one character missing from the bunch – The King of Disney himself, Mickey Mouse. Although appearing in the beginning segment of the game, Mickey was unable to be used as a playable character – until now. Sorcerer’s Apprentice Mickey is a fantastic addition to the game, and a welcome change of pace in the roster that was mostly filled with characters from the last decade. Suffice to say, he was well worth the wait.
Firstly the figure itself is pretty tall. While Mickey himself is no basketball player, his Sorcerer’s Hat really adds a fair bit of height. While he still doesn’t reach the shoulders of figures like Davy Jones or Jack Skellington, he is a little taller than characters like Randall or Dash. Great things come in small packages though, and this figurine looks amazing.
Mickey’s garb is identical to the 1940 film. Including his red coat, which is tied together by a piece of rope, and sits over his brown, loose-shoes. The Sorcerer’s Hat sits on his head and is decorated with the star and moon images as they appear in the movie. Mickey Himself also has that signature grin underneath his stern and powerful gaze. On top of that, Mickey just sounds great – hearing that signature voice in the game is sure to warm the hearts of anybody playing.
While Mickey has been slightly redesigned to fit in with the Disney Infinity aesthetic, the figure designers were careful to put him in such a pose so as to hide a lot of these changes. The changes, despite how minor they are, become a fair bit more apparent when you are actually in-game. Mickey is quite thin here, which makes his already comical head stand out. This is by no means a downside however, as it does make him fit in perfectly with the rest of the cast.
One of the key chapters in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice story is where Mickey has a dream that he can control the very stars themselves. As he stands upon a mountain top, he waves his hands around and conducts the stars like his own personal orchestra. Well, that star-conducting is also how Mr. Mouse plays.
Mickey has three different attacks at his disposal. The first is his standard attack, which fires off a blast of energy towards his opponents, dealing considerable amounts of damage to anybody unfortunate enough to be caught in its path. The attack itself looks like he has summoned the stars like in Fantasia, and mixed them with the classic Disney fireworks display.
His secondary, ranged attack is very similar. He again shoots off a blast of star-like energy, but you can control where it flies. The attack itself is visually similar, but instead of one straight blast, the stars themselves rotate and create a small vortex-like effect. One by one the stars flicker out, but the attack itself can travel a considerable distance.
So he can conduct the stars like in Fantasia, but everybody knows the core of that movie was where he brings the brooms to life in order to make his life easier (which leads into the whole metaphor about hard work vs taking the easy way out). Well, Disney have not let us down, and Mickey can summon those very brooms. By jumping into the air and pressing the attack button, a bunch of dark, thunderous clouds surround our happy-go-lucky mouse, and underneath him, a ring of brooms, each carrying buckets of water appear. This serves as an area of effect attack, and hits from all sides.
You have likely seen Mickey walking, running and jumping around during the beginning sections of Disney Infinity, but here is a closer look at how he actually plays:
Mickey is made to be special, and unique from the other characters and this is pulled off to perfection. His attacks are unique, and even though they share some similarities with Elsa’s, the look and feel is so characteristically Disney and Fantasia that comparing the two is almost impossible. It is also important to note that unlike other characters, who’s secondary attack can usually by grabbed from their respective Character-Chest and used by everybody, Mickey’s magic is all his own.
From his iconic look through to the unique abilities he pertains, Mickey Mouse has proven once again why he is the star of the show. Mickey Mouse has come a long way from his humble beginnings in Steamboat Willie, to the king of Disney Castle in Kingdom Hearts and now finally has become the king of your Toy Box in Disney Infinity.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
